


What do we say to the god of death?

by onceuponachildhood



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Other, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-26
Updated: 2015-10-26
Packaged: 2018-04-28 06:40:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5081524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onceuponachildhood/pseuds/onceuponachildhood
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fuck off, usually.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What do we say to the god of death?

* * *

_There’s a reaper dying on Rannoch soil, and Shepard is screaming at it._

* * *

Tali can’t believe this is happening. “Pull over,” Shepard says, like she’s tired of sitting in the back seat and wants to switch with shotgun, and not like she’s about to go face a reaper destroyer on foot. Tali’s not even sure it’s physically possible to string those words together, but if anyone could do it, it’s Shepard. She climbs out of the little geth ship and closes the hatch behind her.

“Shepard-Commander?” Legion asks, and there’s no imagining the confusion in his voice. Keelah, even the geth is baffled by Shepard. How does anyone else stand a chance?

Shepard hefts the targeting gun. Through the vidscreen that both Tali and Garrus are staring at in utter disbelief, Tali can see the glint of Shepard’s eyes behind her visor. “If we run away, the geth stay under reaper control, and the quarians are dead.” Tali feels both a pang of pain at the thought of losing her people, and a swell of gratitude and love for Shepard so strong that it makes her breathing hitch. “I refuse to let that happen,” Shepard says. “This ends now.” And then, her voice so tender and raw and open that Tali can hear the resulting hitch in _Garrus’_ breathing, “Take care of them, Legion.”

The geth ship powers up again, and Legion simply says “Shepard-Commander… good luck.”

Garrus snaps something that Tali’s translator doesn’t catch but she can guess what he means. Tali herself lets out a shaky exhale of a prayer. Shepard shifts the targeting gun. “Acknowledged.”

Tali watches as they speed away. Shepard stands resolute, gun in hand, her shoulders squared and her frame silhouetted by the setting of Tikkun. After a moment, the reaper rises up and Tali can see the flash of red on Shepard’s shoulder. She’s so small next to the damned reaper, and yet she’s the most powerful thing Tali’s ever seen. Maybe Garrus can be convinced to share? The thought is so wild, so inappropriate for the time and place, that Tali has to bite back a laugh. It comes out sounding like a sob instead, and Garrus just reaches over to take her hand. She’ll come back, Tali thinks, with a ferocity that surprises even herself.

“You’re damned right she will,” Garrus replies. Tali hopes that’s the only thought she’d accidentally spoken aloud.

The next moments are tense, filled with watching and waiting. Tali hates waiting, she finds, but she hates waiting for Shepard to either die horribly or triumph even worse. The reaper’s barely fallen when both she and Garrus order Legion to head back, though he already is even as the words leave them.

Shepard’s ripped off her helmet. Her shoulders are set in a line so tense that it looks like one touch would set her off. The reaper is speaking, actually speaking, as Tali moves in. **“Without our intervention, organics are doomed. We are your salvation.”**

“You’re killing everyone in the galaxy to save us?” Shepard shakes her head. “That’s bullshit.”

 **“The cycle must continue,”** it protests, and Tali’s not sure she’s imagining the frustration in its voice. **“There is no alternative.”**

Shepard cuts her hand across the space in front of her, hair bouncing a little with the vehemence of the movement. “Organics and synthetics don’t have to destroy each other!” She turns her head enough to glance at Tali, and Legion beside her. Shepard’s eyes _glow_ in the light, fierce and proud and unshakable. Being loved by Shepard would be like living in the center of a hurricane, Tali thinks. Even with eons of being, nothing can stand in her way. “Just shut up and die already so we can go save the rest of the galaxy,” Shepard snaps, and the reaper complies.

* * *

 


End file.
